Rock on!

Whilst everybody is arguing about the political correctness of spreading the spirit of the festivities and whether Winterval should replace Christmas, and on the other spectrum, whether X’mas is a religious celebration at all, people forget the message behind any celebration. It does not matter if it is a pagan festival. The spirit of any get-together is the fellowship, the fun, the laughter and the strengthening of bonds of camaraderie, of family and the temporary amnesia of the accumulating thoughts of uncertainties of the future. 

As the arms of our family tentacles spread wide to explore greener pastures and in the advancement of careers, the number of remaining members slowly dwindles. If previously, greetings were expressed with bear hugs, exchange of presents and boisterous meetings packed with roars of laughter and trays of food, now we have to content ourselves with digital cards, heart signs and virtual kiss emojis. Messages after messages impressing and outdoing each others’ longing of the other regularly clog the family Whatsapp groups.

These are the gruelling needs of the time and an existential need to propel the family DNA up a notch from where the previous generation left it. If one were too sentimental and fail to be a realist but stay forever romanticising the so-perceived glorious past, he would be stuck in a dream only to awaken to realise that the next revolutionary bus had left us by. 

So forward we shall march with the fond memories of the yesteryears to spur us and the dream of a better future to engine us. The mistakes of yesterday will be the lessons to build a better tomorrow as we sail through the vast Ocean of Life on our minuscule and wayward vessels. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. 

In the spirit of the Yuletide. 2009, Kajang.

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A new dawn?

The widening gap...

I remember long ago when Penang was still very colonial in its outlook. Celebrations which were considered Western in nature were still much in vogue as late as late 60s and early 70s - street celebratory parades, chingay, flower arrangements, processions with local beauties and firework display during New Year.
Appa has taken the whole family for such celebrations many times when I was a kid, before RRF days and life was happy. I vividly remember watching the fire works from the streets along Duke Streets back in 1970. Of course, as in our dreams, memories of fireworks are in monochromatic hues. I do not remember any other colour appearing in that pitch black sky except for white but in various shapes and patterns.
After the show, the crowd, all watching from the streets slowly sauntered towards the bus stop to head home. Some, obviously dissatisfied with wasting the night away which was just beginning, would instead start their stuporous march towards their favourite hideout den to drink their night away. That was then, everybody watching the display from the same stand wishing each other in the spirit of the new year and singing 'Auld Lang Syne'.

Fast forward 2015... Dateline: Kuala Lumpur, areas surrounding the vicinity of Petronas Twin Towers. People of all walks of life gather around to usher in the new year amidst the maladies that had struck the nation - the downing of its third plane from the nation's associate carrier and the immersion of half of its country by floods, hoping that the new year will symbol a new dawn.
Unlike my experience in Penang some 40 odd years ago, this time around, there was an apparent divide of its spectators.
Just like how John Lennon, while performing in Royal Albert Hall in front of the Queen and her royal entourage had said, "For the next number I need your help. People from the cheaper seat, clap your hands. And the rest of you just rattle your jewellery!"
People were all watching the same fireworks but the division of classes ensured that they were put amongst their own kind. The upper crust of the society had the privilege of viewing it in the comforts of a lazy chair perched at the edge of an infinity pool, sipping the favourite alcoholic beverage after being immersed in rendition of nostalgic retro music by the performing band to set the mood and a sumptuous new year meal. The commoners, on the other hand, had to satisfy themselves by shoving and scampering for a nice spot to view the extravaganza. That too, after braving the inclement weather and the stuffy unreliable public transport. Their misery does not end too. After all that revelling, they had to get back to life to meet the challenges of the new year in a two hour traffic kerfuffle. Do not even mention about the pick pockets and pranksters.
The haves, have to just move their bodies in the stuporous gait to the hotel room and enjoy the seed of their labour in the comforts of their plush beds in their hotel suites.

I paid my dues!

Sand in my face, no bed of roses, no stroll in the park, no pleasure cruise...

Go fly kite?

Now that the general elections are imminent, all the political parties have engaged into turbo gear to bulldoze their respective opponents. I managed to catch one such political lecture recently when organizers, in the pretext of ushering in the new Tamil year thought they should rather usher in a new dawn by inviting candidates from the formerly opposition camp to ventilate their views and promises for the upcoming elections. Even though the function was a predominantly Tamil event with Tamil issues on the limelight and Tamil language was used by the master of ceremony, the mixed crowd had no issue staying till the end. Certain leaders from a overtly religious based political party had no qualms in partaking and wishing the organizers well wishes. Are we becoming more tolerant or is it a ploy?
As expected, corruption and wastage issues was the mainstay of the series of lectures. One particular part that strike me was on how life is becoming harder by the day. He went on to say how, after all the years after toiling through rain and heat of the tropical sun, life is still no pleasure cruise. Their forefathers came as labourers and the descendants are still labouring through life labouriosly. They say that predicament is caused by the ruling party and a new dawn awaits them through a new government.
I am sorry that these people are going to pretty disappointed come 6th May. It is going to be new day, a new dawn but the sun is still going to rise from the east. They still have to get up and get down to the same job that they had been doing. They still have to break their sweat and break their backs!
It is not that suddenly find themselves in Utopia or in Garden of Eden or transform into mythical monarch with slaves at their disposal at the snap of the fingers.
Get real! The leaders can only show you where to fish, maybe give you a net. Do not expect them to provide the drinks, lullaby and entertainment!

Curtain finale!

With the year-end malaise and festive mood, not to mention the sinful over-indulgence and the mounting of unnecessary calories and pound, the desire in partaking in the Newton 25km Challenge started waning as the days got nearer. With many casualties as well as other pressing commitments in the rest of the members of the running gang, I became the lone, lonely lifeless representative. The thought of scaling the slow gruelling ascends of Puncak Bukit Jalil just send shivers down the spine. It ain't no bed of roses and no pleasure cruise!
The wild west adage kept ringing in my ears, "a man got to do what a man got to do!" "For what?" asked my horned red-eyed inner demon friend. "For the glory of motherland or bragging rights as you smoast on the social media?".
The tussle continued with my haloed friend retorting, "For health, to ensure smooth laminar flow of blood in your vessels, for strengthening the inner fighting spirit of the soul, to stimulate the immune system to make sure that rogue mutated cells can be nipped in the bud before it becomes a mash of dangerous parasite!"
So, like a kind soul, fighting the inner demons, I did what I was to do, to run for health, for life, for that momentary surge of feel-good feeling!
It would also be a proper send-off to 2012 and my Junior Veteran status. I would be officially initiated as a Senior Veteran in 2013. Hello... I am too young to be 50.
Came 30th December 2012....
My last outing in this route was in 2010 when I completed it in 2h53m. Last year, family commitments overruled this run. Hoping to finish it with a bang a wee bit faster.
The race started promptly at 5.30am at Bandar Kinrara recreation park with 3800 runners in 12km and 25km categories. The long and straight trail started. Somehow, when we are running the inclining road, it did not seem impossible to conquer. Probably all that Sunday morning gruelling at Bukit Aman were paying off. Every successful climb was rewarded by a decline for us to catch a breather before embracing another. The temperature must have around 28 degrees based on my skills living in a tropical country! The air was still with only the movements of the runners making any kind of air turbulence.
We (me and my haloed friend) - the horned guy had to drag along, no choice- met the Newton Challenge and conquered it, to my heart's content. What a way to bid farewell to the fourth decade of my existence. I managed to slice 10 mins off my previous Newton run. My Garmin 610 shows that I completed it 2h43m. The distance, however, apparently is only 24km. With all the torturous hills, the effort is definitely more than you will need for a flat 25 or even 30km! Yeehah.....

Now to continue with my worldly duties...

Happy New Year to Fools?

After the PR disaster of handling of Copernicus and Galileo Galleili's assertion of the law of nature, the Vatican wised up. The new Pope invested their new earned contributions from the masses into books, library and scientific research. One of the new investment was a sundial monument to observe the movement of the sun.

Commission for the Reform of the Calendar
(Pope Gregory XIII Presiding), Biccherna Tablet, 1582

New discoveries showed that the Church and the rest of the civilized world have been getting it all wrong. The radical minded Pope decreed that, to synchronize the season and to give leeway for the errors of the counting of the calender all this while, modern world should fast forward the year by more than 10 days. He set the New Year should start on 1st January every year from that year onwards. News spread like wildfire across the European continent.
Their transatlantic cousins who never really fancied the Vatican control (and in absence of global news network) continued ushering their new year at the end of March. The high nosed aristocratic Europeans used to sneer down their buffoonery and named their New Year All Fools' Day!
Interesting to note that the original new year used to be celebrated from March 25th all the way to April 1st, which coincided with the Holi celebration of fun and pranks as well as Persian new year, vernal equinox and springtime!
Rather than rejoicing to the pagan festivity of the position of the Sun in relation to the equator (even though the Sun is the elixir of life as we more it) in the Julian calender, Pope Gregory decided that the beginning of the year should coincide with the biggest relevant to mankind - the birth of a child through Immaculate Conception of the Son of God. Even though, science have shown this event did not happen on 25th December 0 B.C.E. but rather 15th October 3 B.C.E. (thorugh the back calculation of the bright star that the three wise men from the East followed- and named it the Gregorian calendar.

Too late for Happy New Year?*

14.4.2010

Too late for Happy New Year?*
And a happy new year... But 2010 started 4 months ago! The Gregorian calendar, yes, but for many cultures and civilizations it starts in mid April. For the Zoroastrians and those of the Bahai faith, it starts on the March equinox. The Telugus commence the New Year a month after this date as well. The Christian Churches decided long ago that the single most important event in their religion (i.e. The Resurrection) will be celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the March equinox as Easter Sunday depending whether the church follows the Gregorian or Julian calendar. The Malayalees, Sindhis and Sikhs celebrate their respective New Years (Vishu, Cheti Chand and Vaisakhi) around now. Not to forget the Red Shirts in Thailand who called it truce to honour their Songkhran and at least the Singalese and Jaffnese celebrate something together on the same day. The Laotians, Cambodians, Myanmarese and the Dais of Yunnan celebrate similar function at about the similar times. I vaguely   remember the Balinese start their New Year in March by fasting, silence and meditation for 24 hours on Nyepi. All Hindus and Indians generally all over the world celebrate New Year today.

 The buck stops here, so to speak. This is how far the similarities go. Unlike their Chinese counterparts who celebrate their Chinese New Lunar Year irrespective of their practicing religion with their traditional mandatory reunion dinner, for a Tamilian who professes any other monolithic religion (e.g. Christianity or Islam), the Tamil New Year would be a non-event. Rather than being a cultural event, Tamil New Year is so intertwined with religion that it is now viewed as a religious event. Instead of looking at the similarities, people are going all out alienating each other from fellow homosapiens!

N.B. *Too late for goodbyes – Julian Lennon (1984)

A new year...

2.1.10
So yet another new year creeps in. The second decade into the twenty first century has started... New Year, New Resolutions... No, sir! Not for me. My resolution is not to make resolutions any more in any more years to come which itself is a resolution which I resolve not to resolute!
The first lesson to learn in life is that there is no substitute to hard work and the confidence that you are doing to right thing and that you can and will succeed. There was an occasion when Prophet Muhamad was running from his attackers when the Prophet's army was overpowered. When the people saw him running, they were suprised. ' "How come we are running away from our enemies when we are the God's army?', they asked. To this He replied, "Run, for God is also running with us!".
Lesson to learn from this snnipet is that belief is important, it will us the encouragement and the conviction for us to endeavour for the best. Procrastination will not lead to anywhere even though we are doing something divine.